The Razors Edge by AC/DC

The Razors Edge, AC/DC's twelfth studio album, landed in 1990 on Atco in North America, and it was the comeback that put the Australian bruisers back on top. They cut it in Vancouver at Little Mountain Sound Studios with Bruce Fairbairn producing and Mike Fraser mixing and engineering, and the result has the kind of huge, gleaming sound that made the band hit like a freight train on the radio again.

The lineup was Brian Johnson on lead vocals, Angus Young and Malcolm Young on guitars, Cliff Williams on bass, and Chris Slade on drums, making his only studio album with the band; the Welsh drummer held the stool from 1989 until he was let go in 1994. "Thunderstruck" is the headline, the guitars picking out that frantic, whirring riff while the gang-vocal chant builds like a storm rolling in off the ocean. "Moneytalks" is a fat, strutting groove, "Are You Ready" pounds like a boot on a floorboard, and the title track stalks along in darker, more menacing territory. "Mistress for Christmas" rounds things off with a cheeky swagger.

Critics were split: some praised Johnson and Angus, others grumbled that it sounded too much like the old records. Buyers didn't care. In America it peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200 and in Britain at number 4, putting the band back at the heights of their late-'70s and early-'80s prime, and it went multi-platinum in Australia, Canada, Germany, Switzerland and the US. It picked up a Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1991, and the Razors Edge World Tour kicked off that November.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.